The Lesson of the Last Passenger Pigeon

Martha, the final member of her species, died during what scientists call the Sixth Extinction

By

Amanda Foreman

April 4, 2014 9:03 p.m. ET

In April 1896, a flock of American passenger pigeons was discovered nesting in a forest outside Bowling Green, Ohio. Once the most ubiquitous bird in North America, the passenger pigeon had shrunk from countless billions to this single of flock of 250,000. News of the find was telegraphed across the country, drawing hundreds of visitors to the area.

By this time, the great bison—a powerful symbol of frontier America—had dwindled from a population of tens of millions to just a few hundred, all in zoos or reservations....